Oooh, OW! The injection in my knee hurt a LOT, but I can't imagine a needle in my foot. Cringing just thinking about it, but if it helps you and you can tolerate it, good on ya.

On knee replacement, the ortho doc suggested I have part of the kneecap removed in arthroscopic surgery, but a friend told me she did that and found it useless. Not only did it not relieve her pain, it delayed the knee replacement that allows her to walk pain-free now, as your cousin does. I'll talk it over with the docs, but I think I'd lean toward the total knee replacement, even if they have to put one of those strainers in my vein to keep clots out of my lungs.

The only Rx I've heard of is the Coumadin, but I've never taken it. So I don't know enough about these to offer any suggestions or my experience with them.

Good luck, Celia. My cousin had both knees replaced. He said the first month was the pits, but now he feels like a million bucks. I'm just waiting for my insurance to okay getting injections into my right knee. Then if I can get some help for my right foot, I might be able to walk around well.

Not sure what you're referring to, Renie, but I alternate 11 mg and 10 mg on my Coumadin. When I have dental surgery, I go off my Coumadin and use Lovenox, which is self-injectable rather than a pill. I know Coumadin interferes with processing vitamin K, but I don't really understand how Lovenox interrupts the clotting cascade and why my doc wants me to bridge Coumadin-Lovenox-Coumadin when I have dental surgery. Wonder what I'll have to do when I need knee surgery, which is looking more and more likely given yesterday's diagnosis of advanced patellofemoral arthritis.

Fififrizzle, I can't answer if 8/7 is a lot. I want my green veggies, and I enjoy wine with dinner. Both interfere with warfarin, so I'm stabilized on 11/10 except when I have surgery. Next week I go on Lovenox injectable for a few days before dental surgery.

Hmmm I'm on wharfarin and I miss being able to take my supplements. Might the arnica work against the wharfarin, and that change interfere with your sleep? Ps miss my green veggies too, find that a high dose of wharf gives me diarrhea. I'm on 8 and 7, is that a lot?

Sleeping better sometimes, unexplained insomnia other times. Two nights in a row last week I just couldn't get to sleep or stay asleep, but I had hard commitments at work, so I couldn't just call in sick. The only thing I was doing different was using topical arnica to prepare some skin for a minor procedure. The doctor said arnica might help prevent or lessen bruising, given that I'm on Coumadin. I stopped the arnica and slept well the next night, but it could have been because I was exhausted. Interestingly, arnica is touted as an insomnia treatment in some of the homeopathy articles I've glanced at; however, in those cases, the arnica was ingested, not applied topically. Just don't know.

I hated changing doctors when my previous clinic was removed from my medicare insurance. My new doctor is excellent and comes highly recommended, but he doesn't know my history and my sensitivity to meds even though I requested my chart be forwarded to him. I'm sure it was so huge, that he didn't want to bother. I can't say that I blame him.

Not with that, but my levels of Amitriptylin got toxic and I experienced Ataxia which caused me to collapse when I tried to walk. I kept going in to the ER and InstaCare because I felt so weird and was scratching the hide off my legs, arms and hips. Plus, I broke out with a whole glob of coldsores. I was a mess. It finally took me collapsing just inside the ER doors (and the hospital needing to cover their butts) to have them check me out enough to discover the problems.

OCWIFEY1 & MSHELEN21, thanks for commiserating with me. A big reason my warfarin dose is so big is that I refuse to give up my broccoli, spinach, and kale, so I just stabilize on the larger dose. I was really upset a few years ago when the FDA pulled the plug on a promising replacement that looked like it was ready to hit the market. I hear there's another possible warfarin replacement being tested in Europe, but it'll probably never see the light of day here. In the meantime, protein S deficiency is a lifetime sentence to anticoagulation.

I was just told by my doctor I could stop using the blood thinner after being on it for almost a year. I was overjoyed because I know what you are going through. Everything seemed to interact with coumadin. Most supplements I couldn't take and I hate not being able to eat as many leafy vegetables as I wanted or not being able to drink cranberry juice. I will keep you in mind and pray they find a blood thinner without so many restrictions.

Just read the SP article "Nutrition Tips and Supplements for Insomnia." As with anything I'm going to be putting in my mouth, my first check is for interactions with warfarin, since I am on a very hefty daily dose. The two supplements in the article, valerian and melatonin, both turned up cautions against use with warfarin/coumadin in my search. The JKL Herbal Supplement/Reference Guide said about valerian, "Should not be taken with warfarin (Coumadin), may cause widespread bruising and uncontrolled bleeding." For melatonin, the eNotAlone.com site said, "Warfarin and other blood-thinners: Based on preliminary evidence, melatonin should be avoided in patients taking the blood-thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin®), and possibly in patients using other blood-thinners (anticoagulants) such as aspirin or heparin. There are at least six reported cases of alterations in prothrombin time (a measurement of blood clotting ability) in patients taking both melatonin and warfarin. These cases have noted decreases in prothrombin time (PT), which would tend to decrease the effects of warfarin and increase the risk of blood clots."

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